On his solo debut Bird In The Tangle, ex-Juliana Theory frontman Brett Detar returns to the roots-country sounds of his youth for a set of moody but ultimately hope-affirming songs. Detar stands out for his confident vocals and smart, poetic tunes, enhanced by Nashville veteran Pete Young’s Appalachian-accented production. A sense of both danger and liberation hovers over songs like “Empty House On a Famous Hill,” “We’re Broken But We’ll Never Be Alone” and “This World Ain’t Got Nothing,” driven home by rippling banjos and plaintive fiddles. Detar plumbs the depths of depression in “This City Dies Tonight” and finds glimmers of spiritual renewal in “The Devil’s Gotta’ Earn.” Balancing his more philosophical tunes are rowdy, hard-twanging numbers like “Road To Ruin Woman” and “Cocaine Whiskey and Heroin.” At times, Detar seems to be channeling Gram Parsons; at others, he sounds ready to jump on the outlaw bus with Willie, Waylon and the gang. Most of all, Bird In The Tangle sounds like the work of an artist rediscovering his muse and pouring out his heart, come what may.